Methods of handling calls from clients by large organizations are generally known. Traditionally such calls have been routed through the public switch telephone network (PSTN). More recently, organizations have begun to provide the necessary infrastructure to process calls through the Internet.
In this regard, many organizations now accept e-mails from customers. Typically, the organization will publish a number of e-mail addresses based upon the number of products offered by the organization.
In order to answer e-mails, an organization may provide one or more agents with computer terminals programmed to receive e-mails. The agents may be especially trained to provide information and answer questions regarding client concerns. Each agent may be especially trained to answer questions about one product of the organization or the agents may be cross-trained to address questions about many products.
E-mails to the organization may be distributed to the agents based upon any of a number of different criteria. As an agent completes an e-mail, he/she may be required to signal availability to a host as an indication that he/she is ready to accept a new e-mail. New e-mails may be distributed to the agent with the longest elapsed time since signaling availability or upon skill in handling one or more types of e-mail.
While existing methods of handling e-mails by organizations work relatively well, it is often difficult to measure the productivity of the organization's agents. While measuring the number of e-mails processed per hour may provide some information on productivity, such information may be highly misleading. For example, if a first agent asks for help from a second agent, then the second agent may not receive the credit he/she deserves for helping the first agent. In addition, once an e-mail has been assigned to an agent, there is no known method of determining whether the agent is still working on a response to the e-mail or has left his/her work station for a rest break. Because of the importance of e-mails, a need exists for a better method of tracking the processing of e-mails within organizations.